MEMPHIS, Tennessee — UPDATE 9/2/2020 - Lawyers for a Tennessee death row inmate are asking a judge to DNA test evidence like a knife and a bloody washcloth, which they say will prove his innocence before his scheduled execution in December.
Pervis Payne is accused of stabbing a mother and 2-year-old daughter to death in Millington in 1987.
Payne's lawyers said in court Monday that improvements to DNA testing technology and the expansion of the national DNA database could prove Payne's innocence.
Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich is fighting the DNA request.
The judge is expected to have a ruling later this month.
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7/30/2020 - Defense attorneys say untested evidence could exonerate a Memphis man on death row, but Shelby County's top prosecutor says it won't make a bit of difference.
District Attorney Amy Weirich says that's because evidence of Pervis Payne's guilt is overwhelming.
Payne was convicted in the gruesome killing of a woman and her 2-year-old daughter in 1987 in Millington.
The mother was stabbed 42 times and had just as many defensive wounds.
Payne's attorneys filed a legal petition for DNA testing of bloodstained bedding, bedding which the DA's office says is actually from an unrelated murder case.
"Someone else's DNA on a piece of clothing doesn't mean anything. We don't know when it was left behind. There's no date stamp with DNA," said Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.
Payne has maintained his innocence and is scheduled to be executed December 3, 2020.